Ramon would not be the reason his sisters lost a precious ally.
He wasn't a man who begged, however. Racetracks were not conquered by being nice. She already hated him so there was no point in trying to charm her. Meanwhile, that strange split second of confused feelings left him with the scent of danger in his nostrils. It fueled his need to control. To dominate. To conquer.
He came down on her with the same lack of mercy he showed anyone else who might threaten him or his family.
"Cariño, let me explain what will happen if you resign." He moved to lean on her desk again.
She was standing now, blinking with wariness. She stiffened, but she didn't fall back.
He caught a light scent off her skin, something natural and spicy with an intriguingly sweet undertone. Herbs and wildflowers? The base, primitive animal inside him longed to get closer and find out.
Perhaps he would get the chance, he thought darkly, as he continued.
"I know you've signed confidentiality agreements, but given your antagonism toward me, I don't trust you not to take what you know about us to the highest bidder. I will make your life extremely difficult if you walk out of here. There won't be other jobs available to you. Not at this level."
A renewed flush of color swept across her cheekbones. "If that's your way of trying to make me warm up to you, 'hash-tag friendship fail.'"
"Prove your loyalty to our family. Do what we pay you very well to do."
"Me." She pointed at her sternum. "You want me to prove my loyalty to your family."
"Yes. And quit editorializing on mine." He ignored a stab of compunction. "You know nothing about my capacity for loyalty or anything else."
"I know what I need to know," she assured him bitterly. "But if you're going to make threats against my career, fine. I'll take the high road and show you what loyalty really is. I'll stay because I care about your sisters and because my father would come out of retirement if I quit. His devotion to your family is that ingrained. I never told him that you slept with his wife or he might feel differently. And don't say they were divorced!"
She jabbed her finger at him.
He narrowed his eyes, warning her she was standing on the line.
"It would gut him to know what you did and unlike you, I'm not someone who enjoys making other people miserable."
"I said 'difficult,' hermosa. If you want me to make your life miserable, I can arrange that quite easily."
"Job done, hermoso," she said with a smile that went nowhere near her eyes. "Will you excuse me? I have a press conference to arrange."
"Isidora," he said gently, without moving. His eyes clashed with her gaze in a way that kept his muscles tight and his skin tingling with exaltation in the battle. "I care about my sisters and your father. That's why I'm allowing you to continue with us, and not firing your ass for insubordination. Mind your manners, or you will discover exactly what kind of man I am."
CHAPTER TWO
WITH FURY BURNING a hole in the pit of her stomach, Isidora did her job and sent out the notices that a press conference would be held in the media room of Sauveterre International's Paris tower. The skyscraper in Madrid was its twin, built the same year on the same specifications. Until today, Ramon had worked out of that office, which was why she had not requested a transfer back to her home country, where she could be closer to her parents.
She desperately wanted to call her father with the news that Ramon was retiring. Her father had been a fan of all types of racing long before his client's son had begun entering grand prix races at a mere nineteen years. After showing some talent for racing while learning evasive driving, Ramon had spent an inheritance from one of his grandparents on a car and team, much to the late Monsieur Sauveterre's dismay. Ramon had won that first year and had won or placed in nearly every race since.
Some of Isidora's most cherished memories involved catering to her father as he parked himself in front of the television for a twenty-four-hour endurance race, or biting her nails alongside him as cars zoomed through the narrow streets of Monaco. In the beginning, she hadn't been so much a fan of racing as she was of her father's passion and delight in having a companion while he watched.
Of course, by the time she was twelve, she had definitely been a fan of one particular driver, heart pitter-patting as Ramon rocketed through turns and occasionally spun out only to straighten and take over the lead once again.
Ramon's winning streak, coupled with his Sauveterre name and the fact he represented both France and Spain, made him more than a darling in the racing world. It set him on a level beyond infamous. Demigod.
He had certainly dazzled her young heart.
But after That Day, which had actually been an early morning, when she had bumped in to Ramon leaving her mother's house wearing rumpled clothes, a night's stubble and a complete lack of remorse, she had stopped watching the races with her father. She had claimed she was too busy with university, and would go to her deathbed before she admitted she had watched alone, in dorm rooms, or plugged into her laptop, tucked away in a solitary corner of the library.
She hated Ramon Sauveterre, but she had always needed to know he survived to race another day. How could she be disappointed on his behalf that he was giving it up? She ought to be doing a happy dance that he wasn't getting what he wanted for a change, the arrogant, heartless tyrant.
Her father would be even more devastated, but as the former VP of PR for Sauveterre International, he would understand. Even she had understood, before embarking on this profession, that when it came to publicity, Ramon stole the lion's share of attention as a way to take the fall for his family, particularly his sisters.
That behavior had continued even as she'd taken over her father's position. Since she had come aboard earlier this year, she had watched it happen-if somewhat mysteriously. Ramon had to be the source of the leaks, but he took care of them in his own way, never involving her and never charging into her office to demand why she wasn't preventing his scandals from going viral.
Still, his escapades always seemed to hit the light at the right time to pull attention from his siblings. When Angelique had been called a two-timer because photos of her kissing not one, but two different princes had turned up, photos from one of Ramon's "private" parties had surfaced. He had been half-naked and canoodling with a stripper on each knee. When Trella reentered society via the wedding of a family friend, causing a social-media riot, a tape of Ramon's blue-streaked voice mails had taken over the talk-show circuit. The minute Cinnia's twin pregnancy had become a target, an online feud had erupted between Ramon and a fellow driver.
So, in a way, she wasn't surprised he was announcing his retirement when a secret as big as Trella's pregnancy was hitting the airwaves. It just made Isidora...sad. And sheepish, for calling him faithless.
Not that she would admit that after he had threatened her job and future, the power-drunk bastard. Why did he have to be so hard on her? What had she ever done except like him a little too much?
She smoothed her hair, painted her lips a demure pink and told her throat to stop feeling so raw at the injustice.
She texted Ramon that she would wait for him at the elevator, but Etienne joined her first. He had been her father's protégé and had taken her out a few times last year, breaking it off when their sex life hadn't progressed as he had desired. She had gone to London to finish her degree and had been quite happy to never cross paths with him again.
Then her father had retired and Henri had used a press-gang of euros and guilt trips to bring her aboard. Etienne had believed he was a shoe-in for her father's position. Instead he had wound up answering to her. He was not happy.
"So it's true?" he said, his tone bordering on belligerence.
"What's that?"
"Trella is pregnant?" His tone rang with obviously. "That's what this press conference is about, isn't it?"
"I'm need-to-know, same as you." She pretended to read something on her phone. "But today's announcement is on another topic entirely."
A beat of silence, then he asked, "You're not going to tell me what that topic is?"
"You'll find out in five minutes. That's why I invited you to hear it firsthand."
He swore, muttering something about favoritism.
When she made no response, he said, "So you don't deny it?"
"Deny what?"
His jaw clenched, then he spat out what had clearly been chewing at him. "You were hired because of your father. You're not even qualified. You don't have my experience."
"I was given a chance because of him, yes. But if I stuff things up, I can assure you they will have no qualms about letting me go."